This library guide is designed to introduce undergraduate students to "starting points" for your studies in geography.
Pick a research topic
- Read your assignment instructions carefully
- Pick a research topic that interests you and meets the assignment criteria
- Identify the key concepts of your research topic
- If you need extra help, click on Choosing an essay topic
- Do some background reading on your topic using Wikipedia; watch the Using Wikipedia wisely video
- Key geography resources for definitions and overviews of topics:
- Companion encyclopedia of geography: the environment and humankind
- Dictionary of Physical Geography
- Encyclopedia of soil science
- International encyclopedia of human geography
- The SAGE handbook of geographical knowledge
Search Omni, the library's main search box, to easily find books or peer-reviewed journal articles on any topic.
- How to find books using Omni
- How to find journal articles using Omni
- When searching for journal articles, remember to refine your search by selecting the following options: Peer-Reviewed Journals, Articles, and Subject (optional), to obtain high quality, academic literature. Use the Omni Search Tips for more help.
Search subject-specific databases to find journal articles. They offer many advanced search features and search results tend to be more precise.
Recommended databases for geography:
- Arctic Science and Technoloigy Information System
- Canadian Business and Current Affairs
- Centre for the North
- Environment Index
- GEOBASE
- Scopus
- TRID
- Web of Science
Note: If the library does not have what you need, you can order books and journal articles from other libraries through RACER but you need to register before you can start using it.
- Data Basin
- Canada's Greenhouse Gas Inventory
- EnviroStats (Statistics Canada)
- Scholars GeoPortal
Click here to find Canadian data
Click here to find Maps
Click here for GIS Help
Begin with:
Government websites
- Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency
- Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry
- Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment
- Census Geography
- Environment and Climate Change Canada
- Natural Resources Canada
- Statistics Canada
Intergovernmental Information
- IPCC - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- IUCN - International Union for Conservation of Nature (search "environmental impact assessment" for reports
- OECD Environmental Policy Tools and Evaluation
- USA.gov Earth and Environment
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- United Nations Environment Program
Geographers most often use APA citation style:
- APA Citation Style web guide for basic instructions
- OWL Purdue Online Writing lab for APA
Writing Guides:
